Fantasy Magazine Alert and 411 Question of the Week

Rotoman’s The Fantasy Baseball Guide 2010 is hitting the streets. Look for it at Barnes and Noble, Walmart and other newsstands and grocery stores. Check out the How I Won pieces by Lawr Michaels (oh the pain!), Rotowire’s Chris Liss, Masterball’s Brian Walton, Hardball Times’ Derek Carty and others. And my Picks and Pans join those of Cory Schwartz, Ron Shandler, Alex Patton, and whole bunch of other names you know, and some you don’t, along with 1,400 profiles, Rotoman’s cheat sheets, rookies, and an expert-laden mock draft. It will be the only magazine with Derek Jeter on the cover.

now on to our question of the week…………

Which position do you think is most important to address early on draft day?

The fantasy situation at second base is just ugly this year. There are a handful of proven, reliable top-shelf options – Utley, Kinsler, Pedroia, Roberts, Phillips – but a litany of question marks after that. Which Robinson Cano will we see this season? Is Aaron Hill a 36-homer guy or a 17-homer guy? Can Ben Zobrist do it again? Will Dan Uggla kill the value of his power numbers by hitting .243? Is Howie Kendrick ever going to truly break through? Just two or three years ago there were several intriguing and inexpensive options at the position, but now the list of questions is far longer than the selection of trustworthy answers, so I’m going to try and grab one of the top tier early this year if I can.

-Cory

Since Cory did so well with second base I’ll say catcher. At least second base has Utley and Kinsler. Catcher is Mauer and Martinez? A position that seemed to be coming back to glory a few years back and had a top 5 of Mauer, Martin, McCann, Soto and Posada now is an army of three with Mauer going as high as third overall and only as low as 22nd according to mockdraftcentral.com. Martinez and McCann average out to 22nd and 42nd overall respectively. After that, start scrolling. If Martin and Soto can bounce back and Posada can stay fresh with some days at DH we could see a revival. Don’t forget about Montero, Suzuki, Iannetta and Wieters, but overall this is weak.

-Siano

I’m not at all comfortable with the choices at shortstop this year.The list of risky picks begins with Jose Reyes, who as recently as last season was a legitimate top 5 overall selection. Since most of his value lies in his speed, a lingering hamstring injury that sidelined him for the majority of ’09 is flat out scary.Jimmy Rollins rebounded nicely in the second half last year but let’s not forget about that miserable first half. Were his early struggles an aberration or should we expect similar inconsistencies in 2010? We all know Jason Bartlett can swipe 30-plus bags and post a solid average, but can he reach the 14 home run mark again after hitting a combined eight homers from 2006 through 2008? The questions go on and on. Stephen Drew and, to a lesser degree, Alexei Ramirez were huge disappointments in 2009. Miguel Tejada is old. Asdrubal Cabrera and Elvis Andrus aren’t proven enough. If I can’t get Hanley or Tulo, I’m prepared to overpay for Jeter or even Rollins. At least I know that when all is said in done I’ll be getting quality numbers. Let someone else take a chance on those other guys.

I’m glad the podcast is back in full swing! I’ve got a keeper question I was hoping you would have time to address. The podcast and blog help lead me to a yoohoo shower last season and I’m hoping to repeat!

I can keep one more from the following: BJ Upton, Mariano Rivera or Kendry Morales. There seem to be strong reasons to keep any one of the three. Does OPS shift it towards Morales or is 1B deep enough to pass on Morales with no corner spot? What do you think?

I’m not giving up on B.J. just yet. He’s still only 25 and is a lock for 35-plus steals. The power has to come at some point. After all, he did hit 24 homers back in ’07. I see 1B as being plenty deep this year. Outside of the truly elite, there’s not a ton of difference in value. Hard to pass on Mo, but Upton’s long-term promise is simply too great to ignore.

I’d do that deal in a second. As I’ve stated numerous times before, I’m not sold on Hill. B.J. still carries tremendous upside but I prefer his brother. Adrian is great but he’s no first rounder. Kemp is a legit top-10 (or even higher) pick in a scratch draft. You’re winning this trade in every area and are even receiving a high draft pick on top of it all. One thing I’d suggest is to keep Papelbon over Nathan, who is getting up there in age. I view Papelbon as the better long-term investment.

I still have Pablo, D. Price and Papelbon on my team which I am hoping to either trade for Draft Picks or package w/ some of my keepers to upgrade. I am hoping to pick up Utley, he is my next “target”. We don’t play a CI so moving AGon freed up my Util. spot for flexibility and we start 4 OF, so I see myself set for the near future there, if not for the distant. How’d I do?

I am in a 12 Team Head-To-Head Fantasy Baseball League (Mixed League) where each team can keep 3 players. I am considering making two trades and I was wondering what your thoughts were on them. If I don’t make a trade I will be keeping Albert Pujols, Tim Lincecum, and one of Matt Holliday or Jacoby Ellsbury.

I should also mention the league’s statistics are Runs, Home Runs, RBI, Stolen Bases, AVG, and OPS for hitting and Strikeouts, Quality Starts, Saves, Holds, ERA, and WHIP for pitching.

I’ve been doing my fair share of NFBC mock drafts over at Mock Draft Central, and in deep leagues 3B is just ugly. There is a lot of top tier talent, but when you need to go 15 3B and then 15 CI, you start getting really excited about pretty mediocre stat lines. .292/33/106/102/2 is a 3rd Rounder when it comes attached to a 3B (Zimmerman, FWIW). Not that the MI or C are particularly deep, but I think they are deeper than they normally are, while 3B goes off a cliff past the 8th guy or so.

You’re giving up a lot in both of these deals but considering your keeper situation, I’d go ahead and make Trade 2 to avoid the Holliday vs. Ellsbury decision and get Mauer in the process. I don’t like Trade 1 since you’ll still need a third keeper to go along with Pujols and Hanley. Sure you’re getting the best player in the deal but I see the cost outweighing the benefit.

Hey guys, love your work. I have a keeper question in an 11 team traditional 5X5 league. We keep 10 guys. I have:

Pujols
Howard
Kemp
V Mart
Roberts
Dunn
J Johnson
J Vazquez
Nathan

I need to decide on my 10th keeper between Zobrist, Jurrjens and Billingsley. I am leaning towards Zobrist but he seems a little risky and I love Jurrjens promise. What do you think? Thanks to you guys I won my league last year!

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